Hanoi news

Hanoi to ban carpooling services

The Hanoi’s People Committee has asked the municipal Transport
Department to ban carpooling services for contracted cars.

The committee said that it received a request from the Ministry of
Transport to stop ride hailing platforms Uber and Grab from providing
carpooling services.

The committee repeated the ministry’s request, asking taxi firms in the pilot carpooling project not to
implement similar activities.

The ministry also asked local departments of transport which have
applied the pilot service to urge participating units to strictly implement
regulations.

The departments were also asked to inspect the compliance with the
law and punish violators.

Hanoi was one of several locations selected by the Ministry of
Transport for Uber and Grab to pilot the project.

Grab started providing carpooling service GrabShare in Ho Chi Minh
City in May and in Hanoi last month, which allows two passengers’ bookings to
be completed in a single trip.

Grab said that this provided passengers with cheaper fares, helped
drivers earn more and alleviated congestion. Uber had also planned to provide
UberPOOL in the country, a service similar to GrabShare but has not yet rolled
out the service.

Although the Ministry of Transport has requested GrabShare and
UberPOOL to cease their carpooling activities, Grab is continuing the service.

Grab and Uber in Vietnam have faced objections
from traditional taxi firms who complained of unfair competition.

However, the Ministry of Finance claimed this was inaccurate and
instructed the General Department of Taxation to check
cases for tax fraud and hand out punishment accordingly.-VNA